Aura
by Sailor Latias
Summary: Because Aurora is too much of a mouthful.


_Snow White was Snow_,_ and Emma could be shortened to Em_,_ but what could be said of faithful woman warrior Mulan_?

These were the thoughts of the Princess Aurora in her lavender-clad glory as she and Mulan, their backs to each other, guarded the campsite while Snow and Emma were preparing the quartet's supper. Actually, Mulan stood guard - Aurora just stood. If questioned, she was unofficially on duty, not that anyone really cared what she was doing as long as she was safe.

"Mulan," the princess started off meekly, turning her body to face the warrior, "do you have any nicknames?"

"No."

Aurora's shoulders slumped, bracing herself for another failed attempt at conversing with the soldier girl. "Do you want one?"

"No." She could almost feel the disgust roll off the woman's tongue at the mere thought of being called other than by her full name.

Aurora huffed at her. "Well, unlike you, some of us like having friends. And as your friend, Fa Mulan, I think it would be nice to have a special name all your own. Whether or not you agree with me on that matter, I don't care!" Honestly, the difficult woman could at least try to humor her a little... scoff, laugh in her face, _laugh_! _Anything_! She was always so gloomy and so damn _straight_ it annoyed the princess to no end. Did Mulan even know what a smile was? Under her breath, she muttered "I'll think of one for you anyway..."

_Tian_... Mulan groaned internally, rolling her eyes at the conflict she now faced. Heavens. If the Princess's temper wasn't so easily sparked, maybe conversations with her would go more smoothly. In truth, as much as she hated to admit, they both needed to work on their social skills... and this was just the Princess's friendly nature showing through. She had to pick her battles carefully; one good thing about Snow and Emma is that they didn't mind when Mulan didn't open her mouth. In fact, they might even prefer it that way, but the princess? They were going to be together a long while.

So it would probably be wise to make it less about promises to a dead man and more about enjoying her time with the living.

The warrior suddenly turned around, her body stiffened more so than her usual graceful turns, and her cape billowed out from behind her. She studied her for a brief moment, trained eyes scanning the princess up and down, absorbing every fold of Aurora's dress, every freckle upon her face, making Aurora feel naked and cold. She bit her lower lip as though unsure and a playful twinkle could be seen in her eyes, one Aurora would've missed if she wasn't watching Mulan in return.

"Aura," said the warrior simply. Once the word fell from her lips, the playful gleam in her eyes disappeared. She looked away before the princess could comment, and felt for the familiar handle of her father's old sword for comfort before exhaling a sharp sigh, face flushed. She fought the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose or give herself a few chastising taps to the forehead. For once she did not know what she was talking about and she was certain Aurora knew that.

"Aura," Aurora repeated, beaming, "Mulan, I love it, thank you..."

Mulan grunted in response, unsure of why Aurora was thanking her for her brief moment of foolishness. She waited on bated breath for the name Aurora would bestow upon her and prayed to her ancestors for the stubborn princess to just drop this matter entirely. She had tried a few thousand times and failed to come up with any acceptable combinations of names for herself in English.

"Ahem!"

She braced herself. "Princess?" she inquired, her turn this time graceful than the last.

Still with her smiles, the prettiest one Mulan has seen yet, Aurora cocked her head and purred, "I've decided your nickname, my proud warrior, will be Dragon, for you guard your treasure as fiercely as they." She was looking at the sword, but Mulan knew the princess was trying to convince herself it was her.

Touched by her words, as dragons were good luck in the land she hailed (even if they were offensively not in this land), Mulan broke into a smile and bowed in gratitude to Aurora.

This name she could live with and it was only her Aura who could have come up with it.

* * *

-I wanted to call this The Dragon's Aura but then it'd be too revealing.

-And then there was also some quip from Emma where she asks if Mulan ever gets tired of hearing her name (especially with Mushu stretching her name trying to find her in the avalanche xD) which of course Mulan doesn't understand why she would.

-There was also a scene in my mind of Aurora meeting Henry in the nether out of her soul's habit and when asked, he jokingly suggesting she call Mulan 'Ping'. Snow shut that down though even if Emma thought it was amusing for a short time.

-I just love toying with the idea of most all the references going over Mulan's head simply because she doesn't know what a movie is and has no idea what they're talking about. Same could be said of Aurora, though she doesn't have much to work with and the idea of Maleficent would probably scare her.

-Oh look, new fanfic idea.


End file.
